Chapter 177: A Powerful Heart

Feng Ke'er's attitude was crystal clear. Therefore, when Hu Li looked at Green Hill Peak again, a strong sense of ownership swelled within him—this was his new territory! His new hill! (Note: Having attained human form for many, many years, the fox still retained many habits of the silver fox clan, preferring to call his dwelling a "hill.")

With his hands clasped behind his back, he strolled leisurely among the mountains and waters, his mood feeling utterly marvelous!

The secret realm existed on a plane high above the Central Spirit Continent. Unlike the outside world, there was no alternation between day and night here. Thus, even though a curfew was already in effect outside, the sky here remained a brilliant cerulean blue.

As for the newly minted master of Green Hill Peak, she had been born in a peaceful era and had never once considered imposing a curfew. Even though Feng Ke'er had transmigrated several hundred years ago and experienced a great deal, certain things were etched into her very bones, existing as intimately as flesh and blood. It was difficult for her to abandon them, nor did she wish to.

Regardless of how arduous or difficult things had been, she had always strived to persevere. Because in a sense, this was her true core. Without this persistence, she felt she would be no different from a walking corpse. To her, living like a walking corpse was far worse than dying a swift and glorious death!

That kind of Dao of longevity? She, Feng Ke'er, wanted no part of it!

Now, the situation had taken a favorable turn, and her living conditions had improved dramatically. Here, she, Feng Ke'er, was the law. There was no Alliance, no Central Spirit Continent; everything here was decided by her word alone.

This was her home, her sanctuary.

Therefore, no matter what, she would never allow any messy nuisances to tarnish her paradise.

Ahem, she had strayed off course. Time to return swiftly to the main topic.

Hu Li toured Green Hill Peak to his heart's content, gaining a general understanding of his new home:

This terrain was originally a blessed land brimming with spiritual energy. Now, with the Five Elements Spirit-Gathering Array and the barrier set up by his master, a doubling of the spiritual energy density was something that would happen in the very near future.

The area below the waist of the mountain featured fertile soil and abundant water resources, all of which could be cleared to cultivate spiritual fields.

The mid-mountain region enjoyed a pleasant climate, characterized by numerous grotesque rocks and exotic beasts. However, the grades of these beasts were quite low, mostly belonging to the white tier, with the highest being merely of the second tier. Well, if properly organized, this place could serve as a ranch for livestock in the future.

From the mid-mountain region upward, the spiritual energy grew increasingly dense, though the vegetation gradually thinned out, and traces of beasts became rare.

At the peak, purple Qi came from the East, surrounded by auspicious clouds.

Hu Li thought to himself: *I shall establish a barrier around the mid-mountain level, and from there all the way to the summit, seal it off entirely. This will be designated as the master's private domain—after all, the master is the greatest and only backing of Green Hill Peak. In the future, everyone on the mountain will depend entirely on the master, so I must never allow these mundane chores to disturb the master's quiet cultivation.*

At that moment, Feng Ke'er was engrossed in reading the stack of gossip and secrets Hu Li had gathered, never suspecting that her beastly pet had already made plans. Once this busy spell passed, he intended to offer her some sincere advice: *Master, for the future and well-being of our Green Hill Peak, you must strive with all your might, study diligently, and make progress every single day!*

Aside from that, Hu Li had also discovered some spiritual herbs and medicines over five hundred years old. In the past, he would have harvested them long ago and stored them in jade boxes. But now, since his household was going to open up spiritual fields, harvesting them now would be a terrible waste. Therefore, he carefully cleared away the weeds and marked the spot, waiting only until the spiritual fields were ready to have professionals transplant them—though, truth be told, he knew nothing about farming either.

After finishing these tasks, the entire night had passed. Hu Li cast a dust-removal spell on himself, tidied up slightly, and hurried down to the base of the mountain: first, to report his grand master plan for Green Hill Peak; second, to ask his master to send him out. He planned to visit the marketplace that very day to acquire some beast slaves.

The original plan did not include purchasing beast slaves. With a total of only three hundred thousand spiritual stones on hand, he and his master had initially planned only to buy a small shop in the Central Spirit Continent to establish a foothold. Now, an auspicious mountain had fallen into their laps, solving the housing problem. However, seeds, manpower, and everything else would cost spiritual stones, and those three hundred thousand stones probably wouldn't last long, forcing the shop-buying plan to be postponed.

However, Feng Ke'er was not at the base of the mountain. She had finished reading those gossipy documents in less than an hour and had long since returned to the peak to tinker with her conveyor belt.

Consequently, Hu Li arrived to find an empty space.

"Master, Master," he called out, "where are you?"

Receiving his message, Feng Ke'er replied with a hint of dissatisfaction: "Can't you search for me yourself?" My dear, this was basic training!

Most importantly, she was currently fully immersed in the development of her new equipment and loathed being interrupted for no reason.

Unexpectedly, Hu Li's voice came through the connection again: "Master, without your permission, I will not use the spiritual power of the contract talisman."

Hearing this, Feng Ke'er paused slightly. Upon careful reflection, ever since they had bound themselves to each other, this fellow had indeed never searched for her whereabouts. He had even preferred to blindly guess her intentions rather than use his most proficient mind-reading technique.

A warmth surged in her chest. She put down the work in her hands and asked, "What is it?"

Hu Li briefly reported his preliminary plan for Green Hill Peak and his itinerary for the day.

"Alright, just do as you see fit. I'll come over right now and send you out." Trust was given, and doubt was cast aside; Feng Ke'er certainly believed in those she employed.

Since she still had matters to entrust to him, she used teleportation this time.

Just as her voice faded, she was standing right in front of Hu Li. She was not out of breath, her face was not flushed, looking completely as if nothing had happened.

This—what kind of speed was this?! Hu Li's jaw dropped, turning him into a petrified statue.

"Hey, come back to your senses!" Seeing how endearing and cute her beast pet was being, Feng Ke'er let out a giggle and couldn't help but playfully extend a finger, waving it right before his eyes.

Hu Li snapped back to reality, his jade-like face instantly blushing crimson red.

Well, was he really unable to take a joke like that? Feng Ke'er turned her head away in mild amusement, gazed out at the endless sea of clouds, and asked, "Fox, do you know what keeping private slaves means?"

This was a little secret among the aristocratic clans that she had discovered from that pile of gossip.

After reading those rules and secret histories, she viewed the spiritual realm's current societal structure from a historical perspective as being in a dual transitional phase: namely, the transition from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal one, and from a primitive society to a slave society.

The female cultivators of the spiritual realm possessed strong, independent hearts. They acted with boldness and individuality. Compared to their ancestors, their attitude toward male cultivators had undergone a marked shift. They respected male cultivators more and valued their opinions, but very few of them ever harbored the mindset of clinging to or depending on men. To a female cultivator of the spiritual realm, relying on a man was a disgrace—which Feng Ke'er believed was what set the female cultivators of the spiritual realm apart from many women in the modern world. In her view, the latter—even those female students who fancied themselves "feminists"—were merely paper tigers with a tough exterior. Deep down inside, they were still the dependent, delicate-flower type.

In the modern world, she had been labeled a "feminist" all her life. Precisely because she was "strong and independent," despite being a department beauty and one of the top ten candidates for campus belle, she had earned the ironic title of "protector of flowers," to the extent that she hadn't even encountered a single male student sending her flowers throughout her entire college years. After reading the deeds of these ancient female sages, she had sighed deeply with regret: *Why did I have to transmigrate? Turns out this place is my true paradise.*

Ah, no, compared to those sages, her own heart still seemed quite cowardly! Because she currently lacked their iron-blooded ambition to unify the spiritual realm and look down upon heroes, lacking that conviction and magnanimity of taking pride in being relied upon.

Meanwhile, compared to their predecessors, the male cultivators here had grown much stronger. Achieving greatness and making a name for themselves was their mainstream ideology. However, they had yet to learn the meaning of "chauvinism." As long as someone was strong—regardless of whether they were male or female—the male cultivators would willingly bow their heads in the exact same manner. This was also why Hu Li had never been mocked after ascending—no one laughed at him for serving as a natal guardian beast to a woman. As for Hu Li himself, he harbored no such notions either; societal development in the lower realm lagged far behind the spiritual realm, where a matriarchal society was still very much the norm.

Additionally, there was only one power structure in the spiritual realm, called the Spiritual Realm cultivators' Alliance. Initially, this organization truly belonged to all cultivators. However, as the powerful rose and society changed, the Alliance had long since altered its nature. Now, it was jointly controlled by the Hu and Shi families, known as the twin beauties of the spiritual realm, essentially degenerating into a tool and a facade for aristocratic families to carve up the interests of the spiritual realm.

In the spiritual realm, there were two main populations: first, the aristocratic families, who had gradually evolved into slave owners; and second, the slaves.

Between the two were the free commoners, but this class was small in number and highly unstable.

Slaves in the spiritual realm also had ranks.

The lowliest slaves were beast slaves with demonic beast bloodlines.

Those of a slightly higher rank were beast slaves with spirit beast bloodline.

Both of these categories were slaves permitted by the Alliance, and they were the original slaves.

The highest-ranking slaves were private slaves.

The primary source of private slaves consisted of the descendants of rival aristocratic families, with a small portion coming from commoners.

Private slaves were human cultivators.

Moreover, the rules of the Alliance were very clear: the so-called slaves referred to servant beasts, and everything they possessed belonged to their masters.

Therefore, theoretically, the Alliance did not permit the keeping of private slaves. Otherwise, they wouldn't be called "private slaves."

However, looking across the spiritual realm, which slightly powerful aristocratic family ever took the old rules of the Alliance seriously?

Precisely because the Alliance did not issue identity jade tokens to private slaves, aristocratic families forged their own identity tokens for beast slaves and then processed the transfer procedures through the Alliance under the guise of second-hand beast slaves. In this way, the identity of the private slaves was brought out into the open.

Within the spiritual realm, the Hu and Shi families possessed the most private slaves. The method of turning captured human cultivators into beast slaves was actually "invented" by these two families. How could the Alliance dare refuse to process them?

Over time, the Alliance relaxed its management of beast slave identity tokens.

The method of forging beast slave identity tokens gradually spread. Consequently, black markets specializing in selling blank beast slave identity tokens emerged in the marketplaces. By now, black markets for reselling private slaves had also taken initial shape.

"I didn't know before, but I know now," Hu Li lowered his head and answered honestly. Precisely because he hadn't known before, he had entertained the absurd notion of buying an identity token for his master. Whenever he recalled this matter afterward, he wished he could just crash his head against a wall and die.

Feng Ke'er narrowed her eyes: "Fox, you couldn't possibly be thinking of acquiring a few private slaves, are you?" Otherwise, out of the six jade slips this fellow had picked, five of them mentioned aristocratic families keeping private slaves.

"Ah?" Hu Li raised his head in astonishment, waving his hands and denying it flatly, "No, I really don't have that idea."

Feng Ke'er smiled: "Even if you do, you'd better stamp it out right now." You can know a person's face, but not their heart, and human hearts are unpredictable. By comparison, these "beasts" were much simpler and more foolish.

Peak Lord so-and-so thanks Xiaoshui Dongqu for the evaluation ticket. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to cast recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

Tongtian Baodian 177 - Tongtian Baodian Full Text Free Reading - Chapter 177: A Strong Heart completed!